botkeeper Raises $4.5 Million in Seed Funding as World’s First Robotic Bookkeeper

BOSTON, Jan. 25, 2018 -- botkeeper®, the first automated bookkeeping solution, today announced a $4.5 million Seed investment led by Ignition Partners.  The list of premier investors joining the round also includes former Microsoft CFO John Connors; 500 Startups partner Matthew Johnson; Trevor Kienzle of Correlation Ventures; and Talla founder Rob May, an early botkeeper client.  The investment enables further product development and expanded sales and marketing activities. Ignition Partners’ Kellan Carter and Atlantis Technologies’ CEO Tom Biggins join the board.

Bookkeeping is an important, yet historically very manual, business process.  Accountants and bookkeepers spend many hours recording transactions one-at-a-time and feeding this data into complex, hard-to-navigate systems. It’s time-consuming, expensive, and error-prone; often eliminating a company’s ability to see – and act on – cross-functional trends impacting the overall business.  botkeeper customers save money and time by automating bookkeeping tasks through a blend of dedicated machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and human assistance.  As companies grow, botkeeper scales with them while still offering significant savings over alternatives.

With botkeeper, companies immediately secure a dedicated bookkeeper – referred to as a “botkeeper” – that provides accounting services virtually. A botkeeper represents a combination of technology and human assistance that can securely access a business’ financial information (e.g., banks, credit cards, and accounting software) to make entries, track and schedule revenue and deferred expenses, account for payroll, reconcile bank accounts, send invoices, and more.

“Robotic botkeeping? It sounds like another crazy Silicon Valley whim,” said Enrico Palmerino, CEO at botkeeper.  “But look under the hood and it makes a lot of sense.  Using AI and ML, botkeeper can eliminate the inefficiencies, complexities, and prohibitive costs inherent in traditional accounting processes and tasks.  botkeeper leverages these advanced computer science techniques to analyze diverse company-wide data sets, categorize expenses, and execute timely accounting actions automatically – all with 99.97% accuracy.  We knew we were on to something when an early demonstration showed that botkeeper could clean up three years of a client’s bookkeeping in just two weeks.”

A botkeeper interacts with clients, answers client questions, and prompts clients for needed information much the same way a regular bookkeeper would.  But unlike a bookkeeper, a botkeeper is available 24/7, is half the cost of a traditional bookkeeper or outsourced firm and delivers faster and more accurate data entry.

“Clients benefit not only from bookkeeping automation, but also fully-customizable dashboards and reporting which give a 360-degree view of their business,” explained Palmerino.  “Each client is also paired with an experienced accountant for support and phone assistance.  By combining automation with highly-trained accountants, botkeeper provides the highest level of customer service while simultaneously ensuring that financials are consistently reviewed.  Any urgent, custom, or complex client accounting tasks are addressed immediately.”

“botkeeper has fundamentally changed an age-old industry and is redefining modern accounting best practices,” said Kellan Carter, principal at Ignition Partners. “I wouldn't be surprised if bookkeeping as a term is eventually replaced by ‘botkeeping’.”

About botkeeper
botkeeper provides growing businesses with a robotic bookkeeper that automates bookkeeping and accounting tasks using machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and human assistance. Hundreds of leading-edge companies trust botkeeper for round-the-clock accounting services that save them time and money and allow them to focus on growing their businesses. For more information, visit www.botkeeper.com.

About Ignition Partners
Ignition Partners helps entrepreneurs build innovative and category-defining business of lasting value. With offices in Los Altos, CA and Bellevue, WA Ignition Partners invests in early- stage business to business software companies with a focus from AI & machine learning, cloud application services, vertical industry reinvention to digital transformation.  For more information, visit: www.ignition.vc.

Contact:
David Powers
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617.648.2421